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Ping on NBN

Ping to www.fearby.com on NBN, this looks good, I was getting 29ms/49ms on ADSL 2.

— fearby.com ping statistics —
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 18.489/19.609/20.052/0.649 ms

Upload WordPress install to a server on NBN

Upload of a small 9,551,485 byte file (Latest WordPress) to www.fearby.com on ADSL 2 via SCP on NBN

192-168-1-1:Downloads username$ scp /Users/username/Downloads/wordpress-4.9.2.zip scpuser@www.fearby.com:/wordpress-4.9.2-try5.zip
scpuser@www.fearby.com’s password:
wordpress-4.9.2.zip
100% 9328KB 1.5MB/s 00:06

192-168-1-1:Downloads username$ scp /Users/username/Downloads/wordpress-4.9.2.zip scpuser@www.fearby.com:/wordpress-4.9.2-try6.zip
scpuser@www.fearby.com’s password:
wordpress-4.9.2.zip
100% 9328KB 1.5MB/s 00:06

Note: This took 6 seconds to upload 9mb (it used to take up to 1 minute and 53 sec on ADSL 2)

Wifi Congestion

No WiFi congestion near me.

Speedtest Benchmark

Let’s see the benchmark numbers.

Conclusion

Initially, I was very happy with the initial NBN speeds, but in the last 2 weeks, I have had constant dropouts and no landline service.

At first, I had instability and TPG kindly sent a TP-Link router to replace the Huawei router. The investigating engineer said that Huawei routers are known to cause issues and they are replacing them if customers report this,.

The TP-Link router was working for a few weeks but instability returned and now we had no dial-tone on the landline.

I was sent a replacement TP-Link router (3rd router since signup) and that router failed to even get a date signal, let alone a dial-tone. I plugged the 1st TP-Link router (2nd router) back in and with enough trying, I can get a data signal after a half hour.

I am being sent a fourth router (3rd TP-Link) and will update this post with details.

I have to manually reboot the router a few times ever 12 hours or so to get a data signal (no landline).

 Questions for TPG

• Q1) Who handles router firmware updates (to fix OpenSSL and other issues) while on contract?

Pros (so far)

• Initial speeds and stability were good.
• The Pillar technician said the signal at the FTTN Node signal is not turned all the way up yet so the FTTN has room to move later when people in the neighbourhood connect. From what I hear the signal won’t be turned up until all connections are on the NBN (analogue switch off in 12 months)

Cons (so far)

• Instability (4th router being shipped to debug the stability issues).
• No Landline for a few weeks (5 months in)
• TPG: No Static IP on TPG Residential NBN plans like TPG ADSL Residential Plans (I used to specify IP’s in remote server firewalls/blogs). I had to set up a VPN.
• TPG: 2-4 day wait for payment before the 2-30 day upgrade happens. TPG should mention 4-30 days installation. How does it take 4 days (2 business days + 2 weekend days) to verify payment in 2018?
• Huawei Router is locking up and needs a daily reboot, WiFi light is on but nothing can connect to it (ethernet connected devices also fail to talk to the net often)
• TPG: Huawei router has a 2A power supply (router has little vents for cooling compared to my 0.85 amp TPLink ADSL2 router.
• NBN: Communication between retailer and NBN could be better.
• New router WiFi range only has a range of 40m ((but no channel congestion), the old one I had a range of 80m due to external antennae). Update: I was advised by a blog reader that setting a 20Mhz WiFi setting offers better range over a 20/40Mhz wifi range (but I would need to re-enter the password on devices).
• TPG can’t escalate my no-landline issues to NBN Australia while a data connection is kinda working.

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Updates

16th Feb 2018

My Router WiFI stopped working and the router was very hot to touch. The Router is already in its own room, has a large unimpeded space to breathe (3m x 10m x 8m). Intenet googling revealed the router has no heatsink and this router gets quite hot.

20th Feb 2018

I had to reset the router as some devices could not talk to WiFi and new devices could not connect to WiFi. Interestingly Connecting an Apple time capsule tho to Huawei ethernet port (and bypasing the TPG Router also fails to allow internet access from time to time (upstream).

FYI: Typical evening speed is 50/20 connection, pings are lower.

26th April 2018

Download speeds are falling below 40MB at night and surprisingly falling to 13.5Mb in the middle of the day???

30th May 2018 

Huawei router became slow again, Pinging google failed or was up to 2,600mns latency, Speedtest.Net failed to load, Google speed test failed to load.

Rebooted the router and waited 5 mins (back to normal), I hope the TP-Link router that TPG are sending is better

(9 PM speeds)

29th May 2108

TPG is sending a replacement TP-Link router. Thanks

27th May 2018

1. Huawei Router needs a daily reboot as the WiFi and ethernet routing to the Internet stop working.
2. Every changing dynamic WAN IPs are causing hell with my firewalls on remote servers. I’m not paying $20/m for a feature that was free on ADSL 2

June 2018

Landline phone has been down for 5 days, new TP-Link router arrived and I had to reset it up and enter all my details again. Landline still down. Third router has been sent (TPLink) as TPG suspect the TPLink is faulty. The router needed rebooting daily as the Internet stopped working now my top speed is 5Mb on a 50Mbps plan.

Waiting for the new router, I tried the old Huawei and it could get a dial tone for 30 seconds max. Line fault?

June 22nd, 2018

Countless calls to TPG re unstable Internet and no landline signal.

Slow and unstable internet.

A 4th router is being sent out to try and fix the landline. At first, the provider said their tools could not provision a phone line, it worked the following day but did not resolve my problems.

I vented my frustration on Twitter and NBN Australia (after picking up the Simpsons reference) suggested  I watch some Malock while waiting for the NBN issues to resolve. Good job NBN Social media rep 🙂

Today is a good day to become a tech luddite. No home @NBN_Australia on @TPG_Telecom software bugs and unstable operating systems. What are some good non tech hobbies? #YellingAtClouds pic.twitter.com/eJ5yc4HGu1

— Simon Fearby (Developer) (@FearbySoftware) June 20, 2018

Awesome NBN reply (appreciated :))

I decided to switch to Telstra NBN as they offered fibre to the House.

Blog post coming (Part 5).

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